What it means being a slave?

W is a close friend of mine. I always enjoy having intellectual discussion with him. I respect him for being honest, open and rational when discussing about many issues. He is a new Christian believer, even though he hasn't been a believer for long, he is very committed to his belief (much like when I was in my secondary school who was also a very very committed Christian, it is amusing when I look back now). Recently, he has been discussing with me a lot about my issues with the bible.

Two weeks ago, we had a lunch together. During the lunch, we discussed about the "slavery" in the bible. He defended the slavery practices in the bible and insisted that there is an equivalence between the slave in the ancient time and worker/employee in our modern days. To be frank, I was really very surprised-- how could an intelligent person like him equate a slave, who is deprived of any form of freedom as a human being and is treated not as a human but as a property (in the bible, Exodus 21:21, Leviticus 25:45) to a modern day employee, whose personal freedom and liberty is protected and accorded by the constitution and whose decision to be employed is based on mutual consensus and is well-protected under the employment law? (No offence to W if you happen to read this, but your explanation is seriously unacceptable.) Below is an excerpt of our conversation:

W : I really think that slavery is just a form of employment in the ancient time. During that time, those people who were captured in the war were not able to fend for themselves, the only way they could survive in the Israelite society was to become a slave. In fact, I would think of the employment in our modern day as a form of slavery too, just that we call ourselves employees and not slaves.

Me : I cannot agree with your equivalence. How is our current employment different from the ancient time's slavery? From economics perspective, our current employment is built on a mutually consensual foundation, it's a mutually beneficial transaction. You benefit from being fairly compensated for your worth of service, your employer benefits from receiving the service that you rendered, both of you get what you want. Whereas in the case of slavery, it is based on coercion, the employer would have to resort to violence to force the slave to be obedient and faithful to him, so obviously, only the employer benefits while the slave suffers.

W : But the slave also gets compensated in the form of food provided to him while serving his master. It's just a different form of compensation.

Me : So do you think the slave agrees to be compensated in the form of food? Do you think the slave is given the freedom to choose how he is to be compensated? Do you think the slave can choose to stop working when he feels tired? Do you think the slave can resign from being a slave to his current master?

My explanation did not convince him though. Nevertheless, he promised he will study more about the issue and discuss with me next time. In our conversation above, I only talk about the difference between a slave and a normal employer from economics perspective, in fact, there are more to that, both economically and socially.

To really imagine and understand how it feels to be a slave in the ancient time is rather difficult for me personally, this is especially due to the fact that I'm born in an era that too many things and rights have come so naturally upon birth that I have hardly thought of losing them for a moment. I have, in fact, enjoyed these rights and taken them for granted for so many years that I could hardly imagined losing them for even a second. Despite that, I still try hard to imagine what it means being an ancient slave in the bible.

What it means to be a slave? Even though I cannot provide a full picture of the life as an ancient slave, the bible could give you a tip of the iceberg.

1. Foreign slave (non-Hebrew) is to be treated as a property. (Exodus 21:21, Leviticus 25:45)
2. Foreigners can be bought and sold as slaves (just like you can buy and sell animals/livestock) (Leviticus 25:44-45)
3. Slave is a property that can be bequeathed to your son as a possession forever. (Leviticus 25:46)
4. A slave's ear shall be bored through with an awl by his master. (Exodus 21:6)
5. For a sex slave, if she couldn't please her master, the master shall let her be redeemed and should not sell her to other people. (Exodus 21:8-11)
6. If a master strikes his slave and the slave die immediately, then the master will be punished; but if the slave survives for a day or two, then the master shall not be punished, because the slave is his property (or money). (Exodus 21:20-21)
7. A slave is worth 30 shekels of silver. (Exodus 21:32)
8. A slave who is given a wife by his master and his wife bears him sons or daughters, his wife and children shall also become the property of his master. (Exodus 21:4)

These are just some of the commandments by God in the bible. Of course, this is not a complete picture yet, there are many things more to lose from being a slave.

What else do you lose being a slave?
1. You have no right to education, you have to serve your master since young.
2. You have no right to choose what you eat and how much you want to eat.
3. You have no right to choose when you want to work and when you want to stop working.
4. You have no freedom to speak freely and express your feeling, even when you feel extremely sad and tired of being lonely.
5. You have no right to love and marry the person you love, everything is arranged by your master.
6. You have no right to resign and go back home, once you become a slave (for non-Hebrew slave), you'll become your master's property forever.
7. You have no freedom to choose where you want to sleep and don't expect to have a proper and clean bed free from fleas and insects
8. You have no right to pursue your dreams, your passions and your own happiness in life, basically, you live to serve your master until death.
9. You have no right to make friends, as you can hardly meet other people, unless your master can arrange a wife for you.
10. You cannot expect to be treated with human dignity, because you're nothing close to a human. To your master, you're merely a movable property, like cows, chickens, dogs, sheeps etc.

When I go through the list, I'm truly amazed at how many things and rights that I have been so used to take for granted are actually luxuries that an ancient slave can hardly even dream of getting.

Just take a moment, imagine yourself being a slave in the bible and imagine yourself losing all these rights that you have taken for granted upon birth. And then, ask yourself: What it means being a slave? Is He really an all-loving God that you know of? Can a God that sanctions the practice of slavery be called an ALL-LOVING, FAIR AND JUST GOD?